


Beast in Black, Soft and White

by Kissa



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Eventual Malace, M/M, platonic jalec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27197011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kissa/pseuds/Kissa
Summary: Alec and Jace get the most of their parabatai bond.
Relationships: Magnus Bane & Alec Lightwood, Magnus Bane & Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	Beast in Black, Soft and White

**Author's Note:**

> Ficlet inspired by my dad calling Alec and Jace "Dog and Cat" because of their temperaments. There is no smut in this fic, Alec and Jace are just really close and they have these protective animals that represent the qualities they wish they had living inside them. Alec wishes he were more assertive and more powerful, JAce wishes he were wiser and more insightful. It all works out :) 
> 
> Also, I bent the timeline of events to suit my needs. Actually, who am I kidding? I made a pretzel out of the timeline.

It’s in the silence between words; it’s in the way he holds his hand out so Alec can get up after a long sparring session.

It’s in his cruel-looking eyes that soften just for Alec, and crease at the outer corners when a smile reaches them. Jace is like a spoiled pet cat - a ruthless killer to the prey lurking outside, a balm to the human he snuggles up to.

And Alec has every interest to learn what makes Jace purr - it’s sharing secrets and reading under a blanket together at night, it’s holding him on stormy nights so he can sleep even when nightmares come.

He reads about famous romances from history in the late hours, alone in the library and he thinks. He loves his father and his mother, he loves Isabelle and Max - but not in the both exciting and unnerving way he loves Jace.

According to the authors of those books, love is beautiful and grand and it shines from afar like an angel’s halo. Then what, Alec wonders, is the small, black, wriggling animal clawing at the inside of his chest every time Jace is mentioned or around? That animal pushes him to watch too fiercely over Jace, so much that it comes across as possessive, to not hesitate to waste anyone who so much as attempts to harm Jace. He learns to think of it as Beastie and to cater to its demands sooner, rather than later.

Beastie grows along with him. From a wretched, black thing, to a scary, big monster that sleeps contentedly, curled up around Alec’s heart because Jace is his parabatai and never leaves Alec’s side.

But when Jace is taken from him - from them, really, dragged through a portal by Valentine, Beastie springs into action and takes control.

Alec watches, powerlessly, as someone or something else is piloting his body, stomping on laws and protocols and doing many other unthinkable things to get Jace back.

Beastie is fire and black rage, but it’s also power and confidence. Things Alec hasn’t yet mastered on his own, but which he needs constantly these days.

And it’s so hard to even survive through the days when he doesn’t have his shiny parabatai by his side.

But eventually, he does find Jace, and somehow he manages to make sense to his co-workers, to his parents and the Clave, to prove to them that Jace didn’t go willingly, but to save everyone else and that he is not the traitor the Clave hurried to label him as. Maryse still doesn’t believe Alec’s take on the whole mission, but she sees that her son doesn’t eat, doesn't sleep and does harm to himself in ways that iratzes don’t fix.

When they see the footage of Jace’s torture, which Valentine recorded for research purposes (and most likely because he is a sadist), they have no choice but to believe Alec and to clear Jace’s name.

He still doesn’t find Jace when they storm the Morning Star. What they find is a mountain of corpses and a gruesome zoo of experiments and tortured Downworlders held in cages below deck.

And the worst part is Alec’s side of the parabatai bond is fraying, pulling his soul away from him. He needs to find Jace soon or he will die.

When he does find Jace, more by chance than by ability, his parabatai is lying unconscious on a bed in a mundane hospital, his clothes dirty and smelling of old blood and gasoline. He was undressed by someone and put into one of those hospital gowns, with tubes going into him, while his clothes rest at the foot of his bed.

Alec’s heart breaks and Beastie howls powerlessly at the skies, scratching at Alec’s insides.

It only settles a bit when Alec traces all the healing runes he remembers onto Jace’s skin, watching the bruises disappear and the wounds close.

Still, Jace is too weak and Alec carefully lifts him in his arms after making sure no trace is left behind - they do not want mundanes sniffing around and investigating.

On the way out, Alec is met by four werewolves, who want to tear Jace to shreds for some perceived crime that Jace couldn’t have committed since he was a prisoner all this time.

He places Jace somewhere behind him and he looks at his options - it’s too close and too narrow to use his bow. So he takes out his twin blades, the ones Jace always insists he carry despite having the bow he is the best at.

He walks towards the werewolves, weapons drawn, and they watch him, holding their ground. But they see something in his eyes that makes them put their tails between their legs and bow in submission.

Alec doesn’t know what they saw, only that they leave without further confrontation.

Walking back to the Institute, he feels Jace’s warm breath on his neck and at some point, Jace’s lips on his cheek.

Everything is as it should be. Beastie is pleased and curls back down.

***

There are times when Alec is reckless himself. Not because he plans to, but because he is too innocent and too willing to see the good in people first. Their world is a cruel and unforgiving one, and Jace has stared its many ugly faces in the eyes ever since he was a child.

Ever since his father murdered his falcon before his very eyes, he swore to himself never to grow attached to any sort of pet.

Yet, in time, something inside him changed. When he went to live with the Lightwoods, when he met Alec, the feeling of comfort and home Alec gave him settled inside him, curled up around his heart like a fluffy white cat.

He didn’t bother to bring it up with anyone, thinking it some phantasm of youth, but as the years passed, Kitty stayed.

Kitty always tells Jace where Alec is and what he is up to. If he is about to walk right into trouble or if he is having a good time. And Kitty always judges Alec for never knowing the difference between a threat and fun - the overly cautious young Shadowhunter swears off all the fun because every time he chose in the past, he chose wrong.

Kitty makes Jace a polarising person - people either love him or hate him on sight. But they all compete for his attention, whether they like it or not.

The only way to appease Kitty is to be where they can both keep an eye on Alec, and in time Jace gets so used to consulting Kitty in everything, he no longer questions her presence and is even grateful for it.

When he drags himself off of the Morning Star, his instinct telling him to hide, Kitty is hurt inside him. She is trying desperately to hold on to his soul, which is trying to escape the suffering it’s been dealt in this world.

***

Alec comes to get them not a moment too soon, and then they are in recovery at the Institute, in the infirmary.

Jace doesn’t respond to the usual treatments until Alec comes to his bedside and crawls in bed with him.

Beastie demands and Beastie claims. Alec sees himself start to caress Jace with long strokes, over his arms and down his chest and belly, over and over, until colour returns to Jace’s cheeks and his pulse goes back to normal.

He ends up sleeping curled up protectively around Jace and the medics rethink their intentions of scolding him when they see that his presence helped Jace make a full recovery.

From that day on, Alec becomes more daring and seeks Jace out for closeness and comfort and Jace seems to love the intensified attention.

People around them start to talk - what was acceptable when they were kids no longer flies now, when they are grown up men and Alec is Head of the Institute. Like him padding up to Jace’s room at night to slip under the covers and grumpily order Jace to get under there with him. But there is always the parabatai bond, and the Silent Brothers assure those “concerned” parties that two parabatai needing to be close is normal and that as long as they do not draw the curse upon themselves, all is well.

It takes Magnus Bane a while to figure out the two parabatai are a package deal, and that the reason Alec has been pretending not to notice his advances is because Alec is protecting Jace, and Jace is, well, not for everyone.

On first impression, Magnus thinks Jace is aloof, full of himself and arrogant even, and perhaps way too happy to have Alec grovel at his feet and patrol around him, guarding him like he’s some sort of treasure.

Until one night, when they grace one of his parties with their presence and Magnus reaches the tendrils of his magic out to envelop the two and study them. And he sees Kitty and Beastie, curled up around each other contentedly. It all makes sense why Jace put him off in the beginning - what he appreciates in his fluffy companions, he despises in Nephilim, but Jace has the justification of actually being as special as Alec thinks he is.

Luckily, Magnus is not a one type of pet person.

(end)


End file.
